Raider Espouse
Raider Espouse '[''he/him] 'is the next Robber Bridegroom in the fairytale of the same name. The heir to a criminal empire, Raider is a taciturn tactician, skilled in disguising his true intentions. Employing incredible acting skills and a wealth of technology, he plays himself as a trustworthy "I don't want to be evil!" destined-villain, while in reality, he's a mastermind of schemes. Most prominently, he's known for his brilliant computer skills. White hat in the streets and black hat... in metaphorical darkened alleyways, Raider serves as the go-to IT guy for villain legacies in the public and writes malware in private. Character Personality First impressions, and Raider is someone you would trust. Why wouldn’t you? He gives off the friendly, if dorky vibe of your typical IT guy. That’s far removed from the truth. Raider is a manipulative bastard. A tight-lipped criminal mastermind, Raider employs his skill of staying quiet and hiding his true intentions carefully. He covers his tracks by playing himself as the poor, tortured soul trying to escape from the stresses of his family, someone torn between his own morals. And he’s seemingly always helpful, lavishing his classmates with “small acts of kindness” and random gifts of chocolate or flowers. And of course, there’s his persona of “the dork”, someone with an over-passionate affection for computers and new technological innovations. He’s skilled in the art of manipulation – gaslighting, trivialising other people’s problems, and often does so in a way that pits himself as the victim. And if that doesn’t work, his family’s wealth is another, almost surefire way of getting others to shut up. For fun, Raider likes to mess with people. He purposefully psyches people out, intentionally riles them up, and deliberately plays Devil’s advocate. He writes that off as being part of his curious, playful persona, rather than as something he does just for kicks. This guy has a sense of entitlement. Raider strongly believes that he deserves to be treated with respect, that people should love him, that he should be surrounded power and veneration. After all, he did grow up trusting the narrative that “nerds will inherit the earth”, and grew up thinking he had no limitations (other than his own mortality, of course). His own arrogance causes him to look down on others for being “less smart”. Internally, he often mocks people by discrediting their achievements and making bitingly sarcastic commentary. This oozes into his external personality as well, making him come off as a critical, generally unimpressed guy with high standards. On one hand, one could maybe justify that his arrogance is reasonable. After all, he is incredibly smart and witty. Snarky remarks and observant commentary are frequent from him. Not only that, he’s concise, he’s resourceful and he’s diligent in what he does. Mistakes are few and achievements countless. There’s no doubt that Raider is a genius, particularly in the areas of computer science. This is the guy who snuck past Ever After High’s firewalls without leaving a trace, the guy who wired up his own router system (one that’s still undetected by the school), the guy who runs a whole criminal underground in his own dorm room. Raider might be a terrible person, but he’s street-smart and people-smart, knowing how to scam people and carry out schemes. Still, Raider has the worst morals. He justifies the worst stuff. In that sense, he’s unredeemable. No amount of skill or talent will compensate for that. He’s completely for self-gain and power, no amount of philanthropy or kindness towards others in his heart at all. If he does do anything charitably, it’s only to advance his own reputation. In summary, Raider is dangerous, terrifying and a horrible despicable person, disguised behind a positive and slightly adorkable persona. Appearance Raider is one of the guys who looks creepy as first, but people soon soften to due to his external amiable demeanour. He is white-Germanic. Although one might suspect that his skin would be pasty as his hobbies tend to be indoor-based, Raider is slightly tanned as he tries to take great care in his appearance. His jaw is sharp and defined, with a long-ish face. Likewise, he’s fairly tall and slim. His hair is medium length, with a defined willow’s peak. It flops and curls down across the sides of his head. Colour-wise, it’ll probably be defined as a dirty blond, leaning towards light brown. His eyes are an intense electric blue. So intense, in fact, that it comes across as unnerving. Raider makes an effect to dress well, favouring blazers and trousers and properly shined shoes. His chin is always neatly shaved, although it’s prone to the occasional specks of stubble. Although he’s short-sighted and owns prescription glasses, Raider often favours contacts. However, he will wear his glasses if the moment arises – particularly if he needs to appear trustworthy and smart. Hobbies and Interests Deep Web Exploration Raider is by all means a deep web hacker. And a frequent member of cannibal circles. And a drug dealer, probably. Behind encrypted code and a sTORy browser, Raider is up to all sorts of illegal stuff, all in the comfort of his dorm room. The Deep Mirrornet is his true domain and the place he feels most comfortable in. Do note that he does not simply stumble upon these pages (I mean, this is the Deep Web. Logically, you ''can't.). Rather, he uses proxies and servers and onion urls passed around in real life criminal circles. Black-Hat Hacking I specify Black-Hat Hacking because honestly? The only hacks Raider gets up to are maliciousness and only benefit himself. Although he's still working on how to get into government databases and whatnot, Raider has hacked circles around Ever After High's security systems. (Also out of pure obligation and a way of keeping his persona up, Raider does do white-hat hacking on the side, though... which is still highly deceptive and kinda black-hat-y.) Coding and Programming On the more innocent side of things, Raider does like writing up code. Sometimes just for fun! Sometimes to test out new concepts he’s learnt or to see whether he can break his own barriers. Sometimes he also likes writing viruses. Also for fun. Computer Games Raider does have a tendency to frequent the mass-media rooms of Ever After High, places with gamers often attend to. Although his typing speed is quick and his reaction time short, and as much as he loves computer games, Raider never seems to score anything other than slightly above average. Fairy tale – The Robber Bridegroom How the Story Goes Some lady wants to get married and a some rich gentleman goes up to her like "sup" and offers to marry her. Her father's like "yeah sure you're rich and hot". Rich gentleman tells lady to visit his house, so the lady does but it turns out he's part of a cannibal circle and intends to kill and eat her. Eventually she escapes and exposes him and he gets executed. How does Raider come into it? He's part of the same cannibal circle. At this point, it's gained enough power to evolve into a full-on mafia. Every generation, the circle elects an appropriately aged young man to continue the story as the next Robber Bridegroom. Parallels *TBA *I accidentally put a great deal of parallel stuff in the trivia section so go read that I guess Trivia *Raider = Robber, Espouse = Bridegroom. **His name could also be read as "raid the spouse" *The idea of Raider being a Deep Web hacker came to me when I was researching the Deep Web, and learnt that it had a tendency to host cannibal circles. Tied in with the general criminal activity going on in the Deep Web, I instantly thought of the tale The Robber Bridegroom which inspired the concept of this OC. **Also hacker can mean a person who breaks into computer security systems, but hack can also mean "to cut up something violently". Y'know, like how the cannibals in the Robber Bridegroom would hack women to pieces. **At MIT, "hacks" is their colloquialism for pranks. Hence, why Raider generally pulls a lot of pranks (malicious ones) on people. *Claims to be a Rebel since he says that his story is morally abhorrent. The truth is – he adores his criminal background and is just irked that he's supposed to die. *Despite his moral leanings, Raider isn't likely to go full villain, as he's more into doing things just for kicks, but would rarely pursue an enemy continously out of spite. **He could be likened a boss orc you kill in a side quest of a video game, but he wouldn't have the drive to be a main villain. *The symbol/sigil of his mafia is a fire ant. **This was chosen for several reasons. **Fire ants live in the forest, just as the robber's hideout was in the forest. Ants are a community-minded society working towards a singular cause, just as the robbers were a tight knit criminal circle. Just as fire ants can tear apart other forest animals, the robbers hack people into pieces, and the act of fire ants carrying their sourced food away can be likened to human trafficking. Finally, fire ants are known as raiders. Quotes Category:Characters Category:Males Category:The Robber Bridegroom Category:Zena's OCs Category:German Category:Rebels Category:Zena's WIPs